Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Thing 32: Google Maps and Mashups

Google has a long memory. When I clicked on "My Maps" it brought up the map I made last summer, showing the locations of my extended family. Husband and I have been using the real estate map ALOT this summer as we hunt for a house.

As far as school goes, I can see using this map with a variety of English and Social Studies classes. For example, last spring an AP English teacher and I talked about having her students create a sonnet map using Google Maps, tracking places in a city where sonnets have been written. Unfortunately the idea didn't get off the ground.

For this assignment, I used the timeline feature in Google to get a timeline of the explorer Marco Polo's travels. There was conflicting information about his birth year and birth place, so before I could even create my first placemark, I had to confirm the information in a third source (great research activity for students). I can see this sort of map making activity being a decent activity for a Social Studies class as it incorporates reasearch, geography and computer skills not to mention employs writing skills as students would have to write a description for each placemarker.

Marco Polo map

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